Roots of a Story
by Rolynne
Summary: Were the Warners Brothers and sister aware of their royal lineage? Do they remember what their lives were before becoming orphans? What does Yakko's story have to do with it? Set in Wakko's Wish universe.


I was watching the movie, and then thought about Dot's story. How did Yakko come up with that story anyway? How come it's so close to their lineage? Do the Warner brothers remember where they come from? So I came up with this.

Wakko's Wish & Animaniacs belong to Warner brothers (The studio, obviously ;D)

**Edit 19/08/12:** Whoa, it's been how long since I posted this story and I'm still getting feedback? -tears up- You guys are awesome. So I cleaned this up as thank you. Hope you enjoy!

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"No!"

So far that had been the only word he'd heard all night.

"No Yak no!"

A seven year old Yakko Warner sighed, staring tiredly at his younger (and only) sister. With her arms crossed and lips twisted into a pout, she looked the epitome of a snot-nosed brat. A very cute brat but a brat nonetheless. Currently she was on a bed made out of hay, pink pajamas covering her frame.

The reason why she was pouting was because he'd been trying to make his sister go to sleep. Yakko couldn't afford a watch to know what time it was, but he was pretty sure it was late. Really late.

"Dot, please go to sleep."

"Yakky no!" Yakko rubbed his eyes, to worn out to deal with this.

"Don't shout Dot. You'll wake your brother."

"No tired Yak!"

Of course she wasn't. And frankly no one was to blame but Yakko. He knew he'd regret buying those fruits. They'd run into a stroke of good luck lately, and had had enough money to afford spoiling themselves for once. Though Yakko had at first tried to do the wisest thing and save it for later when they'd need it more, he'd still given in to his sib's constant begging and puppy dog eyes.

So he bought some fruits covered in sugar. Nothing too unhealthy for his sibs, yummy enough to eat and cheap to boot. But at this hour of the night his only thought was how it could be that Wakko wasn't awake as well.

The eldest Warner wondered if it'd have been better to have just eaten snow again.

"Please Dot? Could you go to sleep? For me?"

"No no Yakky!"

"What'll it take for you to go to sleep, Dot?" Yakko moaned quietly, but the girl had heard him and grinned.

"Stowy Yakko!" Dot answered, trying her best to look cuter. Despite himself, Yakko smiled faintly.

"I don't know any stories, Dot."

"No! Yakky stowy!" She said the best way a three year old could.

"How about you go to sleep _now_, and I'll tell you one in the morning?" _Please say yes, please say yes. _

"No!"

_Damn it._

"I'll take you to the toy store if you do..." Maybe bribery would work.

"No!" Grimacing, the elder Warner let himself fall back into the hay, glancing at Wakko to make sure he hadn't woken. Assured Wakko was still asleep, Yakko tried mustering his best 'stern voice'.

"Dot, _go to sleep now_."

A pause.

"Stowy Yak!"

_C'mon Yakko. _Even his traitorous mind murmured. _What harm could one story do? _

Yakko grunted in relent. "Alright, fine. Just let me think of one."

Pleased, Dot giggled, motioning for Yakko to sit closer to her.

_You're spoiling her, Yakko... _He yawned. _But if it means she'll go to sleep…_

"Just one story, and then it's lights out, okay Dot?" He looked her in the eye. She smiled at him.

"Okay Yakky."

Nodding, he snuggled into the hay, scooping his sister closer while he racked his memories for any good stories. Unable to find one, the orphan resisted the urge to groan and looked at Dot. She held his gaze with expecting eyes, and he tried once more, too tired to deal with this. Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind, and he smacked his lips, mind racing with the best way to tell his tale.

"Once upon a time, a brave knight married a beautiful princess...

_He could feel himself being rocked up and down, laughing loudly as strong arms held him tight. Yakko looked all around, bouncing as he galloped on the large black horse with his father, who had a large bag tighed safely to his back._

_The child saw his mother growing bigger as they approached her, and she faked surprise, a dainty smile on her lips._

_"What is this? My knight has come to rescue me on his large stead." She said dramatically. _

_"Yes, because my princess deserves only the best..." He answered, Yakko nearly jumping off the horse at his booming voice. "Come, my love. We shall run away together and marry happily." _

_Yakko laughed, not undestanding what they said, but finding their Shakespeare-like tone funny._

"...and they had two sons..."

_"But alas! What will become of us? For when we grow of old age no one will be there to take care of us!" The princess held up her arm in fake sorrow._

_"Nonsense! You are a princess, and a princess deserves royal treatment. Therefore, I have brought you a gift." The giggling Yakko was lifted into the air, and he was put in the soft hands of his mother, smiling with glee._

_"A child, who shall take care of us when we are elders."_

_The knight's wife chuckled, hugging her son. "Yes, but he is only one, and we are two. If I am a princess and we marry, you will become a King. Who will take care of my husband, while I am treated like royalty?"_

_The puppy-like child turned to his father. Yes, who would take care of Dadoo?_

_"Ah, that is why, my dear, I've brought you another gift." Carefully, he removed the bag tied to his back, and gently revealed a sleeping Wakko, who was apparently undisturbed from the horse's gallop._

_Balancing Yakko onto one arm, she reached out for Wakko as the youngest boy gently woke up. Tiny hands pushed the large red hat back, and he met Yakko's gaze. Cooing, the baby stretched one of his hands out. The elder sibling stared with a confused gaze, before holding out a finger, which Wakko grasped tightly. Both brothers smiled, shaking their hands slightly as if greeting each other._

"…But they wanted a daughter too." Yakko added, vague memories returning and flashing across his eyes as he told the story. Dot smiled slightly, her ears twitching at the last sentence.

"How'd they get dauwter?" She asked, resting her head on his arm.

"Well..." Yakko put a finger on his chin, deep in thought as another memory surfaced. "They planted a garden all over the kingdom. And on the first day of spring every flower in that garden bloomed_..._

_Yakko stared sadly at the flowers of the garden he currently sat in, still a little shaky. He'd woken up to the groans of his mother, which turned into shouts and then evolved to screams. Panicked, the boy had run out of his room, not noticing Wakko's cries as he ran to his mother's bedroom, only to be stopped by his father and unwillingly carried to the gardens._

_Dadoo had explained to him that it was time to meet his new baby brother, or sister. He had then concluded that it was not worth meeting his new sibling if it made his mom scream like that. His father said that it was tem... tempory-temparo... that it wouldn't last long, but Yakko hadn't deemed it fair._

_So now he was currently among a different and large variety of beautiful and colorful flowers, but he really didn't care._

_Yakko didn't remember much when Wakko was born. All he could remember was that his baby brother was in his mother's belly one day, and then crying for food the next. ...And he stinked sometimes._

_Come to think of it, he still did._

_He was ripped out of his thoughts by something bright at the edge of his vision. Turning his head to get a full view, he spotted a flower. It was a simple flower, with yellow petals and an orange center. It was nothing special like the other flowers around, but he liked it. _

_Walking over, Yakko picked the flower from the stem just as strong hands lifted him from the ground._

_"C'mon Yakko." His father grunted as he placed the boy on his shoulders. "Let's go see your new sister."_

"And out of the prettiest flower came..." He paused a moment for dramatic effect, as Dot grinned anxiously, batting her eyes.

"...you." Yakko finished, rubbing his nose against Dot's and making his sister giggle.

"And so the knight and his bride took you home, and every night they'd come in and say..."

_" Who's the cutest girl?" The woman asked with a smile as the baby in her arms cooed. Yakko only stared from afar, having yet to make himself known to his mother._

_Ever since Dottie had been born, it seemed that all of a sudden he had to be the responsible one. He couldn't rough house with Wakko as much as he'd liked, his parents would always bring up the subject that he had to act his age and be more mature, he had to babysit Dot (precious, fragile Dot in his parent's eyes) and every time he wanted their attention, they were too busy for him._

_He was, dare he admit it, jealous of the newest family member._

_"That's right, you are!" The clear sound of his mum's voice brought him out of his thoughts. The baby giggled as she was tickled by her father, who was right beside his beloved wife. _

_"And how'd you ever get so cute?" His father asked teasingly._

_"She was born that way, of course." Dottie's mother replied. Shooting a sheepish smile at her, the grown man turned back to the baby, pressing his large nose against her tiny one._

_"Tell us your name, young lady." He laughed, before his wife answered softly:_

_"Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Bannana Fanna Bo Besca The third." She cradled her child gently, somehow keeping a straight face._

Dot made an annoyed expression at her brother, as he yawned. Upon seeing the irritation wrinkling her pretty little face, he quickly snapped his fingers as his tired mind remembered.

"And you'd say, 'But you can call me Dot', and they'd ask, 'Can we call you Dottie?' "

_"But we can call her Dottie."_

_All of a sudden the small baby began to cry, her shrill scream making little Yakko wince, and retreat behind his hiding place as his parents tried to calm her down._

_"No, no no. It's okay Dottie-" Another shriek interrupted her father as Dottie struggled frantically in her mother's grasp. Yakko had babysitted her sister long enough to know the reason why she cried. He decided it was time to intervene._

_Popping out from his hiding place, he ran up to his mother, the yellow flower in hand, and quickly pulled on her clothes so that he could get her attention._

_"Not now, Yakko, I'm taking care of your-"_

_"She doesn't like to be called Dottie." Both adults stared at him with a confused expression, the only sound in the room being of Dot's cries. An amused smile grew on his mother's face._

_"Oh? Did she tell you that?" Yakko shrugged before giving a small nod._

_" What else did she tell you?" His father asked teasingly. The eldest Warner thought for a moment before answering cheekily._

_"She said that if you called her Dottie, you die." Both parents laughed softly, while Dot seemed to calm down, giggling at the happier mood._

"And mom and dad would laugh and laugh, and they'd tickle you." At that sentence Yakko did just the same, earning some giggles from Dot. He also noticed that she yawned when she thought he wasn't looking. "And you'd laugh too."

He smiled wearingly.

"And you'd fall asleep with a great big smile on your heart." Dot nodded, getting the hint and laying down for sleep.

"Pwetty stowy, Yakko." The eldest Warner nodded in agreement, rubbing his bleary eyes.

"Yes it is, Dot. Now go to sleep." Dot wasted no time, and was fast asleep in minutes.

Yakko however, didn't feel like sleeping anymore, despite how tired he was. The memories that flashed by as he told the story made him sad. He wished he could know what happened to his parents. To the Warner siblings' parents. Life as an orphan, unsure of where to take the next step, was frustrating. And he had two siblings to take care of.

No one wanted to give a boy like himself a job, so he had to beg and perform for money. This town was too small for any type of orphanage to even be built. Sometimes it got so bad that he was forced to steal. Luckily the village was understanding, and shared in their own poverty, in a way.

He thought of the flashbacks once more. Everything in his memories was blurry. The background, his parents faces, sometimes even Wakko and Dot themselves despite the fact that he still had them. They were faded, and seemed nothing more than a dream of what he hoped had been. But if that was true, then why were the Warner siblings lacking parents. Had something happened to them?

…Had they simply abandoned them?

Those flashbacks, dream-like and faded, were strange. He struggled to remember more and there were times when he couldn't recall a certain scene. But he did know that they came from a good family. Both morally and economically. The soft silky clothing whose touch he barely remembered was different from the ragged patched-up clothes of the villagers where they lived.

Maybe there had been a raid. He had heard that after the palace had been taken over, many families with close connections were robbed of their fortune and stripped of their status. Maybe he and his sibs had been nobility, as farfetched as that sounded.

Yakko sighed, and positioned himself comfortably in the hay to turn in for a good night's sleep. Someday in the future, he resolved, he would find out what happened to his- _their_ parents, after finding a way to make things better. But no matter what, he wouldn't lose hope. He had to stay strong. For his sibs and for himself.

A few years later, when the hospital gave him their birth certificate -their _royal _birth certificates- Yakko Warner nearly fainted on the spot.


End file.
